Roxanne Meadows - "Science, Values, & Social Change"

Roxanne Meadows lectures on the importance of science in all areas of the social spectrum that are necessary for betterment of conditions for all people. This includes a critical inclusion of a science of behavior, without which we are destined to repeat past failures. Roxanne presented this talk at the Jacque Fresco Centennial Event, March 12, 2016.

The Venus Project proposes an alternative vision of what the future can be if we apply what we already know in order to achieve a sustainable new world civilization. It calls for a straightforward redesign of our culture in which the age-old inadequacies of war, poverty, hunger, debt and unnecessary human suffering are viewed not only as avoidable, but as totally unacceptable. Anything less will result in a continuation of the same catalog of problems inherent in today's world.

Learn more at https://www.thevenusproject.com

Roxanne Meadows attended Moore College of Art,

and graduated from Maryland Institute of Art.

From (?) she had her own company for technical illustrations,

architectural designs and model making.

She and Jacque are co-founders of The Venus Project.

So, we are living in a time when science and technology are racing forward.

But our social systems are static.

We do see people protesting on the streets

against the (?) between the wealthy and the poor, racism, war.

And some times that we are able to over throw the regimes that we are living under.

But only to put in another in (?) political government,

that work within the monetary system.

That can not ultimately take care of the problems.

Jacque at a young age searched, excuse me.

But, what The Venus Project has to offer

is a workable plan for social innovation

using the methods of science and technology

to enable everyone to enjoy the benefits of technology equally.

Jacque in an early age searched for such system,

but he was unable to find one. So he took on the job himself.

In order to accomplish this, he studied many different disciplines,

understanding that science applied to everything, and specially behavioural science.

And i say that because it is the most neglected science in our culture.

Yet, the most important to understand the need for The Venus Project

and the direction of The Venus Project.

I felt extremely lucky to have met Jacque when i was 27 years old.

I attended the lecture that he gave in his home in (?) Florida.

And, the very first lecture that i went to,

Jacque in his Fresconian, his unique Fresconian manner,

proceeded to smash everything that i held dear(?) and safest(?).

You understand that, (?)?

But what is different about him is that he replaced it.

He didn’t just complain about society, but he replaced it with a real viable alternative.

with the value system that appropriately (?).

So many people in there first were introduced to The Venus Project,

they can not understand why it isn’t implemented now.

It seems so easy, it would help so many people.

I usually say, well, this is where we are in social revolution.

But where is that exactly?

The answer to that is quite complicated,

but the most relevant issue is that science that has very little relevance

to how we operate and organize society, and the way we live and think.

Science presents us with the best tools we have to acquire a testable (?) knowledge.

It gives us a closer approximation to reality, and shows us how works.

When we become more self critical about our ideas,

and test them in the real world, we become more scientific.

Is supposed to reach(?) thinking and aspirations.

The scientific method, just like science itself, is based on what is built before.

So, observation, testing and experimentation, took a long time to get to where we are today.

And just very briefly, the scientific method is asking of questions, doing research in the field.

Trying to come up with the hypothesis.

And then during control of the experimentations, and reporting the results.

Invention is seriously(?) development, over long periods of time.

For instance, a German engineer, Otto Lilienthal, was very interested, and admired how birds fly.

So, he stuck his arms in long wings, and jumped off the hill.

He wasn’t the very first person to do this, but he was the first successful person to do this.

And he flew over 2000 (?) over (?) flights(?),

until the last one that ended in his death.

Others, after that, experimented an (?) ability to fly, little by little.

Some found out what didn’t work, which was just as important they put into the effort.

We look at the early experimentation on videos, if you seen them,

people trying to fly with the (?), and some people laugh at that today.

But they didn’t understand that(?) that was the genuine explorations

to find out what works and what didn’t.

How else would they know?

The Wright brothers, worked upon what was done before, instead(?) of(?) to those.

And they actually used a book from Otto Lilienthal,

which he wrote in 1880 lines about aerodynamics.

He, the Wright brothers based their aircraft on his findings.

So the Wright brothers were not the fathers of flight.

They were not the fathers of anything, because so many people went before them and died,

so they could get off the ground.

It’s a long serial(?) progression invention(?).

By the way, from the first small engine aircraft, in 1903,

to today’s sending probes to Mars and beyond,

all took place practically within Jacque’s lifetime.

So, when you think about this,

the last hundred years, in the advancements in science and technology,

were more than all the years that proceeded it.

Religious leaders, try to explain the world around them

before a more comprehensible understanding of science and technology occurred,

before a more comprehensible understanding of the scientific methods occurs as well.

It was a primitive way to try to give means to living processes.

It proclaim(?) a set of rules of right and wrong, and good and bad.

That we are still in (?) with today.

It had these rules or dogma to trying govern human (?),

without even understanding, human need,

or the effects of the environment on human behaviour.

What they did not understand, they attributed to the gods.

So, if really is a method of trying to control behaviour

based on fear, ignorance and superstitions.

It is only through the methods of science that would enable us

to get out of poverty, hunger and scarcity.

Predictability comes when we use the science.

For instance, scientists today can predict when the next total solar eclipse of the sun when occurs.

Where in all the world to stand to see it.

How long its duration will be, and exactly what time to view it.

Sorry, but such failed metaphysicians(?), religious prophets, or philosophers,

can not come close to the accuracy that science gives us.

No questions are under bounds(?).

No matter how controversial they are, there are no sacred truths in science.

Just like there are no bad words.

You know, who are this people to tell us, this is a good word, and this is a bad word.

Which words you can use and which you can’t.

It is like a woman driving her car into a repair shop,

and the mechanic says it is the differential housing,

or the bulb between the two wheels.

And the woman gets all embarrassed because don’t talk about that part of the car,

with some panties(?) on it.

For every concept that is, we can not discuss,

or every word we can not alter(?), determines to how backwards we remain.

Without scientific scrutiny and critical thinking,

we would have a world of suckers, pacified(?) by the dominant value of the time,

to keep things as they are.

Clean coal. Global warming is a hoax. Smart weapons.

There always will be wars and rumours of wars.

We all have free will. You can’t change human nature.

And a list of misconceptions that help perpetuate old ways of thinking prevail.

We don’t put the same critical thinking in examining your social system and our values,

as we do say we are making a product.

But this isn’t a pass (?) the blame on the individual,

because we can only think with the tools that we are giving. We can’t exceed them.

What we have to think with does not come from the inside out,

but we totally reflect our surroundings.

If we could critically view our movies, tv, internet, books, magazines,

and what they pass off on us is entertainment.

We could easily see that what they are trying to teach our children and ourselves

is arrogance, cruelty, racism, bigotry, violence, war,

chauvinism, murder, and endless commercialism.

And they sure as hell as exceeding, without any concern whatsoever,

other than if it makes some profit.

Science enable us to electrify our homes, travel from place to place,

talk to anybody anywhere within the world, and even see them at the same time.

And even gives us to (?) itself with the accomplishments of medicine.

Yet, it is also a escape goat(?) to the plethora of problems that we have today.

Because it is misused and abused by people who are conditioned in a sick and primitive culture.

We have the scientists in the world work for the military, at least part time.

And many others work for industry that pollutes, poisons and destroys the environment.

These are not scientists. These are prostitutes or obedient opportunists.

Things we have set up with very few of us understands science and technology.

Yet, our future depends on the progression of relevant information, and how we apply it.

The best knowledge we have of the real world.

The more (?) science and superstition, and fear, (?) to (?) the board(?).

And we become easy pray(?) for bigotry, prejudice, fanaticism and misinformation.

This is a (?) myth(?), with a devastating future.

Because technology is (?) exponentially.

Who is these ignorance serving anyway?

Today, those in position of advantage seek to perpetuate

that the system that put them there, often at any cost.

And laws are written by large corporations that benefit themselves.

And the military is there to protect them both.

What would happen in world without law and order?

There would be chaos, there would be murder,

people killing each other and stealing from each other, just like it is today.

So, something is needed, but it is not law and order.

Instead, it is environmental conditions that don’t generate the need for human hostility.

Science applied to the social systems means that we have to generate,

we have to organize and design an environment,

that surpasses the need for poverty, hunger, war, and aberrant behaviour.

It is a way out of our dilemma.

The Venus Project proposes and uses the method of science

applied to the social system as a tool for elevating everyone.

This can be achieved by a global resource based economy, a systems approach.

With all the interacting variables are working efficiently as one entire process.

It includes, well, new well designed cities of (?),

working symbiotically as a living breeding(?) system.

These cities were incorporated clean sources of energy,

efficient transportation, automated production and distribution plants,

enabling freely making available all the goods and services

that the highly technological society can produce.

Industrial plants would be turning out products

that are long lasting, and can be recycled.

Resource surveys will be made in order to find out the parameters that we have to work within.

And before any large projects we would be taking on,

we would be doing a negative and positive study.

In other words, we would work withing the carrying capacity of Earth’s resources,

with all the resources would become a common heritage of all people.

This, in turn, along with the new orientation,

would enable people to update their values and change their behaviour.

When goods and services are made available to everyone,

there is no need to steal.

When anyone can get whatever they need at the access center.

Behaviours such as under selling your competitor,

to knock them out of business, would become obsolete.

What we consider of why (?) business first (?) today,

would be looked upon (?) and twisted in a saner society. Yes.

People would not be looked upon as pray(?) for a sale.

People of the future would be concerned about bettering one another,

ratter than beating them.

In medicine, for instance, people doing surgery,

will not do it to get a higher salary, for claim(?), for reward,

but because they get their fulfillment on making people well.

We have to build an environment that generates a new point

that is cooperative rather than competitive.

The more intelligent we become, the less we want to be anyone.

And whatever is being designed in the culture, goes right back into society,

for everyone’s benefit and security.

This way, people are more (?) towards one another.

But they are not more friendly towards one another because their superimposing moral code,

or an ethical code, or teaching them empathy,

or because their actions genuinely enhances standard of living for everyone.

We call this functional morality.

In a saner society, people would probably feel sorry for those

who still need (?) waste(?), a bigger home,

or a fancier car, or more expensive jewelry.

They would understand that these people are so insecure

that they need to impress others in this way, to acquire their own sense of self world(?).

But if all the homes, and all the amenities, were equal high quality,

no one would envy anyone over possessions,

when anyone can get whatever anyone else has.

If you are envious, say of somebody who can draw better than you,

it is only because somebody got(?) to you, and said you have to be the best.

We would be proud of you.

But those types of values would not be used in the future.

And shame, if you have shame, it would be, it is,

because some convinced you that you are not what they think you ought to be.

These would be obsolete values in the future,

because the environment would enable anybody to be comfortable, no matter where they were.

In conclusion, science applies to everything.

But it is practically non existent when it comes to applying it

to the way we organize society.

The Venus Project applies the methods of science

to the way we operate society to generate constructive and cooperative behaviours.

This is the most needed scientific experiment of our times.

And it is the most taboo to even consider or talk about.

What we have now is a failed experiment.

It does not need to meet, and it does not need (?) of everyone.

What we ultimately do would depend on if we have a future or not.

So we would invite you to join us.

And what could be the most exciting and rewarding

social experiment that we could possibly take on?

Thank you.